Enterprise Decision May Cost Jobs

February 09, 1991|By DAVID RESS Staff Writer

Newport News Shipbuilding's gain of additional work in the massive overhaul of the aircraft carrier Enterprise makes layoffs at the already hard-pressed Norfolk Naval Shipyard more likely, a top union official said Friday.

A.J. ``Butch'' Walker, president of the Metal Trades Union, said as many as 1,700 of the 11,500 workers at the Navy yard could be laid off this year because of the loss of work on the Enterprise and diversions to the Persian Gulf of ships due for overhaul.

The Naval Sea Systems Command has decided to consolidate all of the massive nuclear refueling and overhaul of the Enterprise at Newport News, instead of giving some of the work to the Norfolk yard, command spokeswoman Susan Fili said Thursday.

Newport News has already won contracts worth $1.3 billion for the project, which last year was forecast to cost a total of about $2 billion.

Walker said the Norfolk yard was originally supposed to do one-third of the work on the 1,088-foot-long Enterprise.

He said that would have provided work for about 1,000 workers for about a year.

``We'll be going through some tough times,'' he said.

The Navy has said it would give Norfolk work on other ships to make up for the loss of the Enterprise assignment, but Walker said so far all he's heard of are quick in-and-out jobs.

Walker said these won't provide the kind of steady work for shipyard workers that a big contract like the Enterprise would. Workers at the yard are already being forced to take days off because the workload has declined, he said.

The Navy yard, located in Portsmouth, was originally supposed to begin work on the Enterprise in late 1993. The Newport News yard, which started work on the overhaul contract last year, was originally supposed to overhaul and modernize the ship's eight nuclear reactors and propulsion systems before turning the ship over to Norfolk.

The Enterprise, the Navy's first nuclear carrier, was built by the Newport News yard and delivered in 1961. It saw action in the Vietnam War and was the ship that picked up astronaut John Glenn after he completed the first manned orbit around the Earth.

Russell N. Axsom, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 8888, which represents Newport News shipyard blue-collar workers, said he was unsure what effect the Navy's decision would have on employment at the yard.

He said he did not expect many more people would be hired.

Shipyard hiring has been the one bright spot in the Hampton Roads job market recently. According to the Virginia Employment Commission, about 1,000 workers have been hired at area shipyards - mostly at Newport News - at the same time overall employment has declined.

The Newport News yard now employs about 29,000 people, making it the largest private employer in the state.